More people than I expected read my Thursday update about the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, so I figured I should do a brief follow-up. For one, I didn’t read the Deadline article closely enough as it turns out the WGA and AMPTP were just meeting about meeting (I’ve made a correction to the Thursday post as it’s still getting some clicks). Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the meeting did not result in agreeing to resume negotiations. In the…
So, it’s August and both the screenwriters and the screen actors are still striking. The WGA is meeting about returning to the negotiating table this Friday, but that doesn’t mean their strike is ending and, at the time of me writing this, there’s no news on AMPTP talking with SAG-AFTRA (though per that article, they’d be happy to). I’ve gone back and tagged all my relevant posts about the strike(s) for ease of reference, but…
As of Thursday, July 13th, SAG-AFTRA is on strike, joining the WGA, which has been on strike since the beginning of May. Considering I posted about that strike, it made sense to post about this as well, but boy howdy has there been a lot in the past 10 days or so. In terms of overall covereage, Alissa Wilkinson, over at Vox, has one of their excellent explainer articles. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni banter…
I am still following accounts of the Writers’ Strike, which looks like it’ll be a long one, but while you can continue to check out information, like the Strike Diaries from the Hollywood Reporter, for today, I wanted to just post about film, specifically a great example where writing, performance, and fight choreography comes together beautifully. I’m talking about the climactic duel in the 1956 comedy The Court Jester. I love the duel because, as…
I swear it was just last year that I has a couple small parts in a thoughtful science fiction, but I checked and season one of Apollyon came out in 2021. Well, season two just premiered last week and you’ll me as Riley a few times in the season… but really, you’ll want to tune in to find out what main character Theo Ramsey will do after the revelations of season one. Also, I have…
I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think I’ve previously done a blog post about a little known holiday today. Sure, you knew it was William Shatner’s birthday today. Sure, you knew that, at age 92, he’s still making movies and even being blasted into space. But you might not know that today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day, a minor holiday started over 10 years ago, but really deserves to be a…
Actor and stunt choreographer Ke Huy Quan has not been on my mind until recently. I may not have seen Temple of Doom, where he played Short Round, this millennium. I only saw The Goonies for the first time last year (friends know I regret nothing) and Data was probably my favorite of the Bad News Oregonians. And then Everything Everywhere All at Once came out this year and was entirely up my off-kilter-but-emotionally-truthful alley.…
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury has died at the age of 96. You can read obituaries and appreciations of her career in: The AV Club Collider Deadline NPR The New York Times Variety Vogue The Washington Post, and Disney (she was, of course, a “Disney Legend”) And if you want to celebrate her many parts singing memorable songs, Playbill has a wonderful video compilation. Amazing that she simply termed her voice “serviceable.” Indeed, if you find…
The indefatigable actor David Warner has died at the age of 80. You can read remembrances, obituaries, and appreciations from: BBC (as always, they give a good overview of his career) The Guardian (which also has a really nice photo retrospective) Deadline Hollywood Reporter Radio Times iTV ComicBook.com CinemaBlend While plenty of the headlines mention The Omen and Titanic, many of my generation were first introduced to him as the scene-stealing Evil One in Time…
Lest any of you think I’m going to populate the blog with repeatedly grim tales of people being sucky (as I have for a couple Wednesdays and this morning), I just wanted to highlight the Patton Oswalt interview I linked in last week’s post about film distribution. Really, if you are at all interested in his career or perspective on things (he is a tremendous film geek in addition to his other geekdoms), the hour…